From Briefing.com: 4:30 pm : Continued buying helped the stock market march higher for the third straight session. More impressive was that steady momentum helped stocks close the session at new highs for the year.
The latest leg of the stock market's run came with broad-based support and gave the S&P 500 its best single-session gain in nearly one month.
Strength was most pronounced in the financial sector, which settled 3.4% higher. Multiline insurers (+5.9%), diversified banks (+3.1%), and regional banks (+4.9%) were the sector's standouts. Several widely-held financial companies attempted to win support for their shares by expressing expectations for their business and the financial industry at professional conferences.
Despite the impressive closing prices, stocks actually slipped in the first few minutes of trading. However, buyers quickly stepped in as stocks hit the unchanged mark after retreating from opening levels.
Initial gains were helped along by rallying overseas markets, which helped the Dow Jones World Index, excluding the U.S., advance 2.0%, its best single-session percentage advance in more than one month. The upbeat tone was kept intact by some generally solid economic reports, including an August Consumer Price Index that showed a 0.4% month-over-month increase, which was a tad higher than the expected 0.3% increase. Core consumer prices for August increased 0.1% month-over-month, but that was spot on with the consensus forecast. CPI data for August was much more tame than the August PPI data that were released yesterday. Meanwhile, industrial production for August climbed 0.8%, which exceeded the 0.6% increase that had been widely expected. Capacity utilization for August came in at 69.6%, which was slightly above the 69.0% that was widely expected.
Participants showed continued favor for commodities, which helped the CRB Commodity Index advance 1.8% as gold prices settled 1.4% higher at $1020.20 per ounce and silver prices climbed 2.5% to a new 12-month high of $17.43 per ounce. Oil prices jumped 2.2% to $72.51 per barrel. Not to be outdone, natural gas prices settled 12.2% higher at $3.77 per contract. Natural gas prices are now up more than 55% from the 7-year lows that were set earlier this month.
Adobe (ADBE 33.35, -2.27) was one of the few companies to recently announce quarterly earnings results. The company posted better-than-expected third quarter earnings of $0.35 per share and issued in-line guidance for the fourth quarter, calling for earnings from $0.33 to $0.39 per share. The company announced that it will acquire Omniture (OMTR 21.88 +4.56) for $21.50 per share in cash, which values the deal at $1.8 billion. Though participants pushed against shares of ADBE, large-cap tech still gained 1.4%, based on the Nasdaq 100.
In the face of strong buying in stocks and commodities Treasuries managed to limit losses. The benchmark 10-year Note finished a modest four ticks lower. It had spent part of the session in positive territory. DJ30 +108.30 NASDAQ +30.51 NQ100 +1.4% R2K +2.1% SP400 +2.0% SP500 +16.13 NASDAQ Adv/Vol/Dec 1899/2.76 bln/792 NYSE Adv/Vol/Dec 2543/1.58 bln/513
4:05PM Oracle reports EPS in-line, misses on revs (ORCL) 22.13 -0.53 : Reports Q1 (Aug) earnings of $0.30 per share, in-line with the First Call consensus of $0.30; revenues fell 5.2% year/year to $5.05 bln vs the $5.25 bln consensus. Non-GAAP operating income was up 7% to $2.3 bln and non-GAAP operating margin was up 570 basis points to 46%. Oracle's results were impacted by the reduced value of foreign currencies when compared to US dollars, reducing Q1 GAAP earnings by $0.02 per share. Without this impact, Oracle's Q1 GAAP and non-GAAP earnings per share would have been $0.24 and $0.32, respectively. GAAP and non-GAAP new software license revenues would have been down 14%, and our software license updates and product support revenues would have been up 11% on a GAAP basis and up 8% on a non-GAAP basis. GAAP and non-GAAP operating income would have been up 21% and 11%, respectively. "By substantially improving operating margins we were able to increase Q1 earnings per share even though revenues decreased slightly," said Safra Catz, ORCL's President. "We grew non-GAAP operating margins by 570 basis points to 46 percent in our seasonally smallest quarter. Our operating model continues to drive earnings for our stockholders."
4:04PM Oracle spiked down to test the September lows of $21.22 following earnings (ORCL) 22.13 -0.53 : Has bounced back about $0.50 off the reaction low at $21.09. $21 was support back in August as well. (last trade at $21.58)
12:00PM Amkor, Nakaya Microdevices and Toshiba are continuing their negotiations on joint venture (AMKR) 7.38 -0.09 : Nakaya Microdevices, Amkor Technology and Toshiba announce that they are continuing their negotiations of definitive agreements pursuant to the non-binding memorandum of understanding announced on April 28, 2009 for the formation of a joint venture in Japan to provide system LSI assembly and testing services. The initial target date of October 1 for the start of operations will be extended and the parties plan to announce the proposed commencement date when definitive agreements are finalized. The terms of the joint venture have not yet been determined and the formation of the joint venture remains subject to the negotiation of definitive agreements.
8:34AM Phoenix Tech announces an agreement to distribute "HyperSpace" with Intel Desktop Boards (PTEC) 3.92 : Co announces an agreement to distribute HyperSpace, an instant-on computing environment, with Intel Desktop Boards featuring the integrated Intel Atom processors 230 and 330
7:02AM Kulicke & Soffa increases Q4 revs outlook (KLIC) 6.29 : Co issues upside guidance for Q4 (Sep), sees Q4 (Sep) revs of $100-105 mln, up from $85-90 mln, vs. $86.73 mln First Call consensus."The recovery in overall business conditions that began near the end of our March quarter is continuing. Improvements are being seen in all areas of our business, particularly in ball bonders, wedge bonders and expendable tools."
AI
Market Data 
Markets 
